After Brexit, many small and medium-sized businesses in Britain faced serious losses. Some went bankrupt, others retired early, and many struggled to survive. Between 16,000 and 20,000 businesses stopped exporting to the EU entirely. Those who kept going say Boris Johnson’s government designed a hard Brexit that helped big companies, not small everyday ones.
Cheshire cheesemaker Simon Spurrell says Brexit didn’t just cost his small but fast-growing company £250,000—it eventually cost him his business. Back in 2021, he called Brexit the “biggest disaster” any government had ever negotiated. Looking back, he hasn’t changed his mind. “Brexit is the biggest self-harm any government has inflicted on itself in recent history,” he says.
In early 2021, Ben Fletcher, who led Logistics UK and was then at Make UK, described Brexit as “Dante’s fifth circle of hell.” Five years later? “We got even further down, to Dante’s seventh or eighth circle of hell, at its worst,” he says.
Spurrell is a good example. He found he could no longer export his award-winning cheese to the EU because every sale—even one worth just £30—needed a £180 health certificate proving it met EU standards. He sold his business to a larger company that could handle the paperwork. “Every small business that sells animal products—meat, cheese, dairy, eggs, even pet food—suffered massively because they didn’t have the luxury of a big organisation that could absorb the paperwork and have someone dedicated to it,” Spurrell says.
In November, he joined a small artisan stilton cheese company in Derby, part of Hartington Creamery, where his daughter’s family looks after a herd of 300 cows. He says the market is tougher because of Brexit for businesses that aren’t big enough to handle the red tape. “Small producers are just trapped on this island, and we’re all fighting each other for the same market share,” Spurrell says.
An analysis of HMRC data by the National Farmers’ Union earlier this year showed that exports of farm products—from beef to cheese—to the EU had fallen by 37.4% in the five years since 2019.
Alastair Brooks, who owned a berry farm in Kent, also stopped trading. Brexit pushed him into early retirement. “We stopped the business probably because of the politicians who gave us Brexit, rather than Brexit itself,” he says. He blames “the lack of preparation by the civil service and government” and their failure to “design a 10-year strategy or vision” for farmers after leaving the EU.
For farms, one of the biggest Brexit issues was seasonal workers. For years, they had hired workers from the EU, mostly from Romania and Bulgaria. After Brexit ended free movement, farms had to look further afield. “They were replaced by people from the ‘stans: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan,” says Brooks. Before Brexit, he had built a team of loyal European workers who came for the season and then returned home.
“We had a system designed with countries we knew people would return to. But then suddenly we had a seasonal workers’ scheme where some would arrive, and as soon as they got a national insurance number, they were gone. They mistakenly thought an NI number allowed them to work anywhere,” he says.
Brooks says staff shortages never actually happened, but running a business that depended on government promises was tough.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about the article A total utter nightmare small businesses reflect on Brexit 10 years later
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 What is this article about
Its about how small business owners in the UK feel about the impact of Brexit ten years after the vote It collects their reallife stories and frustrations
2 Why do the businesses call it a total utter nightmare
Because they say Brexit has made trading with Europe much harder more expensive and more timeconsuming Many are struggling to survive
3 What is the main problem for small businesses after Brexit
The biggest problem is new paperwork and costs for exporting goods to the EU like customs declarations and health checks which they didnt need before
AdvancedLevel Questions
4 What specific red tape are businesses complaining about
Things like filling out customs forms for every single shipment paying VAT upfront needing rules of origin certificates and getting extra checks for food or plant products
5 Did the article mention any benefits for small businesses
No The article focuses almost entirely on negative consequences Most business owners said they havent seen any promised benefits like lower regulation or new trade deals
6 How have businesses actually changed their operations because of Brexit
Many have stopped selling to the EU entirely hired extra staff just for paperwork raised prices for customers or moved part of their business to Ireland or mainland Europe
7 What does the article say about the Trade and Cooperation Agreement
It reveals that the deal didnt solve the practical problems for small firms It removed tariffs on most goods but the new customs checks and bureaucracy still create huge delays and costs
8 Give me a concrete example from the article of a business problem
One example is a cheese exporter who now needs a separate health certificate for each batch of cheese which costs more than the cheese itself Another is a clothing brand that lost 40 of its EU sales because customers had to pay unexpected import fees
9 What practical tip do the business owners offer to others
Several say Dont rely on the government for help They advise hiring a customs broker or logistics expert immediately and to budget for much higher shipping and admin costs than before
